Death Goddess
A day later.
More than a hundred Spaceships slowly flew toward Asgard Continent.
They were the latest Spaceships built for Thanos's forces, sent to reinforce the front line.
Aboard a large mothership, Loki stared at the book in his hands, bored out of his mind.
Ever since Thanos's last visit, he seemed to have been forgotten. No one had come to see him again.
If robots hadn't still brought him food from time to time, he might have thought he'd fallen into a Wormhole again.
Just when he thought he would grow old and die in prison, someone had taken him aboard another Spaceship.
Now he was uneasy about his fate. He had no idea what Thanos intended to do with him.
He hated having his fate out of his own hands. It was unbearable.
Just then, the door opened, and two figures encased head to toe in metal walked in.
"Come out."
Loki's book vanished from his hands, and he obediently followed them.
The metal figures were robots, equipped with infrared vision, heat sensors, ultraviolet detectors, and more.
They were the perfect counter to his illusions.
Before long, he was led outside the Spaceship, where he saw that Purple Big Guy: Thanos.
But then he spotted someone he hadn't expected to see.
He stood over three meters tall and had pale blue skin.
It was his father by blood, Laufey, king of the Frost Giants.
Loki was so startled that he instinctively turned to run.
After all, he had nearly used the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim, the Frost Giants' Planet.
Laufey had probably come to settle that score.
But a stern voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A beam of blue light shot toward him and froze his body on the spot.
Laufey walked over, seized Loki, and said respectfully to Thanos, "Thank you, Lord Thanos. From this day on, the Frost Giants are at your command."
In truth, Laufey had no desire to serve Thanos.
But in Thanos's eyes, he had seen endless destruction. The destructive energy coursing through Thanos's body was almost impossible to contain. Laufey knew then that this was a true conqueror, nothing like the hypocrite Odin.
If he refused to submit, he and his people would surely be destroyed.
Without an artifact in his possession, he could not even resist.
So after they spoke, he chose to submit.
Besides, Thanos had saved his only child. That made submission easier to bear.
Seeing Laufey submit, Thanos nodded with satisfaction. "We have a thorough system of rewards and punishments. Earn enough merit, and you could even rule an entire Galaxy."
Making grand promises was an art.
If the prize wasn't big enough, no one would even look at it.
And he hadn't lied.
With enough merit, someone really could rule a Galaxy.
The catch was that they would have to conquer ten Galaxies to earn enough merit to claim one.
Laufey, however, was no fool.
In more than a thousand years of life, he had met every sort of person and heard every sort of promise.
He merely nodded at Thanos's offer, then left with his son.
Loki had nearly destroyed Jotunheim, but he was still Laufey's only son. Laufey could not truly do anything too terrible to him.
He could spare Loki's life, though that did not mean Loki would escape punishment.
Seeing the look in Laufey's eyes, Loki cried out, "No... Help!"
In the temple of Asgard.
Odin dismissed Thor and Heimdall, then went to the Bifrost alone.
A flash of light later, he vanished.
The next instant, he appeared in the Underworld, the realm of the dead.
Darkness filled the sky. Even the sun was black. Death Aura hung everywhere in the air, and bones covered the ground.
As soon as Odin appeared, the bones rose and assembled into skeletons.
Soul flames ignited in their eye sockets, and they lunged at Odin with grasping hands.
In the Underworld, every living creature was hated and attacked.
Odin's face darkened. He gripped Gungnir, and a blast of energy erupted from it.
Boom! With a thunderous roar, every skeleton turned to dust, and a fissure more than a hundred meters wide and several kilometers long split the ground.
That was all the damage the attack caused because space in the Underworld was more stable than in the living world.
After that, no more skeletons formed. It seemed even the dead knew better than to challenge someone stronger.
A moment later, an enormous, indistinct shadow appeared in the void.
"Odin, what are you doing in my Underworld?"
It sounded less like a question than an accusation. The shadow clearly had no fondness for Odin.
Odin knew they did not get along, and he replied impatiently, "I'm here to take my daughter."
With that, he sensed Hela's location and vanished.
When he reappeared, he stood before a tomb.
It was enormous, over ten meters tall and covering more than a thousand square meters. If not for the headstone at its front, no one would have recognized it as a tomb.
A woman knelt before it.
She had long black hair and wore a tight black outfit. Death seemed to radiate from every part of her.
She was Hela, the Death Goddess.
Seeing what had become of his daughter stirred something in Odin's heart.
Had I treated her too harshly?
Before the Nine Realms had been brought under his rule, Hela had been his foremost general.
She had risked her life for him, killing countless enemies and conquering one Planet after another.
Yet he had sealed her in the Underworld for over a thousand years simply because she had awakened a witch's bloodline.
But he quickly shook his head.
The bloodline of the Asgardian Royal Family could not be tainted. Only someone of Asgardian blood could become the God King and succeed him.
His gaze hardened. "I'm giving you a chance. Come back to Asgard with me, but you must obey my orders!"
At the sound of his voice, Hela drew the Death Aura surrounding her back into her body and opened her eyes.
They were filled with darkness and death, as though one more look into them would drag a person into the abyss.
Then her clothing began to change.
Black-and-green armor formed around her, followed by a cape. Finally, a Helmet shaped like spider legs appeared on her head.
"Odin! I've waited so long for you!"
With that, a Black Sword shot from her hand toward Odin.